CSU football notes: Roberts named Player of Week for second time

Nov. 12, 2012

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CSU kicker Jared Roberts was named the Mountain West Conference special teams player of the week Monday for the second time this season.

Roberts, a sophomore from Littleton, kicked a career-long 49-yard field goal at the end of the first half of the Rams’ 33-11 win Saturday over UNLV and later hit a 32-yarder to improve to 8 of 9 on field goals this season. Roberts also made three of his four point-after touchdown kicks in the game, which was played with snow sticking to the field and temperatures in the mid-20s. He is 24 of 26 on the season on extra-point kicks.

“I tell you, I’ve been proud of Kicker, I really have,” coach Jim McElwain said Monday at his weekly news conference. “Kicker’s done a darned good job this season.”

His first field goal allowed Colorado State University to take a 24-0 lead into the locker room at halftime and his second put the Rams on top 27-0 late in the third quarter.

Roberts, the kicker on two Mullen High School teams that won Colorado Class 5A titles, also won the MW’s weekly honor after the season opener. He made three of three field goals and one of two PAT kicks in CSU’s 22-17 win over the University of Colorado .

“He’s really stepped up,” McElwain said. “There’s an example of a young guy that came in here, proved his worth and has made himself relevant to the whole team.”

Fresno State running back Robbie Rouse was named the offensive player of the week, and teammate , a linebacker, was named the defensive player of the week. Rouse ran for 261 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries in the Bulldogs’ 52-36 win at Nevada. Brown was in on nine tackles in that game and also scored one of Fresno State’s three defensive touchdowns by stripping the ball from a Nevada running back and returning the fumble 26 yards to the end zone.

FEELING BLUE: McElwain said he’s not sure whether or not he’ll spend any time this week talking to his team about the blue artificial turf surface at Boise State’s Bronco Stadium. Discussing it, he fears, might make it into a bigger deal than it actually is.

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McElwain was coaching at Eastern Washington, a Big Sky Conference rival of the Broncos, when the school replaced its green artificial turf surface with a blue one in 1986. He also played games at Bronco Stadium while coaching at Montana State from 1995-99.The current FieldTurf version was installed in 2010.

“It think it’s cool,” said McElwain, who donated money to help his alma mater, Eastern Washington, replace its green artificial turf field with a red one a few years back.

“I think it’s more just how you think about it. You go back to (the movie) ‘Hoosiers,’ the gym. No matter how many it seats, no matter what color the floor is, it’s a 10-foot basket, the free-throw distance is the same, the end lines are the same.

“ ... I think it’s something that they’ve done a good job of marketing.”

As a condition of joining the MW prior to the 2011 season, Boise State agreed not to wear its customary all-blue home uniforms for conference games.

INJURY UPDATE: Injured linebackers Shaquil Barrett (ankle), Davis Burl (ankle) and Aaron Davis (unspecified injury) took part in the early part of Monday’s practice and should be able to play Saturday, McElwain said.

Quarterback Garrett Grayson, who sat all last week with his left arm in a sling after missing three of the previous four games with a broken collarbone, did not practice Monday.

Receiver Thomas Coffman had his right ankle and foot in a protective boot and was riding a stationary bicycle.

Safety and kick returner Jasen Oden went through warm-up drills with his teammates but wasn’t wearing a helmet, suggesting he might have an injury, too.

ODDS ARE: Boise State is a 28-point favorite over the Rams, according to the seven Las Vegas sports books that publish their odds online at VegasInsider.com.

ON THE TUBE: Saturday’s game will be broadcast nationally, beginning at 1:30 p.m., on the NBC Sports Network. The NBC-SP team of Paul Burmeister (play-by-play), Rod Woodson (analyst) and Anthony Herron (sideline) will handle the broadcast.

SERIES RECORD: The Rams and Broncos met for the first time last season, with Boise State winning 63-13 at Hughes Stadium.